Java Jre

[vaustein]

Hi all,

Aside from KVM (no AWT, no sound), have any Java Runtime Environment packages, preferably GCC or Sun, been released for GP2X? Sun has JVMs and JDKs for Linux, so it seems like a possibility.

 

[sand_man]

Yes it's possible but no one has ported it yet.

 

[vaustein]

Sounds like a plan

 

[BBTroll]

What would you do with Java? Command-line games?

There will be no AWT, or SWT support(or atleast until someone ports X)

And wrinting the fb would be defeat the "spirit of java" by removing the abstraction from the hardware. Is it even possible to write the framebuffer in Java?

Not to mention that the JRE would kill a good chuck of your RAM off. Also, Java is not well know its massive speed.

 

[DijiTao]

The source to the JRE is not available, you can't just port it. There have been a few attempts at making an open source JRE but currently they aren't useable except for command line application. I do not believe Sun has ever released a JRE for Linux on ARM. So beyond the technical problems, I don't think it's possible.

 

[rokdcasbah]

The source to the JRE is not available, you can't just port it. There have been a few attempts at making an open source JRE but currently they aren't useable except for command line application. I do not believe Sun has ever released a JRE for Linux on ARM. So beyond the technical problems, I don't think it's possible.

​

i think you can compile java mobile apps directly for arm. not sure about the details though... there are commercial tools for doing it but who knows about open stuff. there are two different java mobile editions. both of them handle garbage collection differently than the standard jre...that's as much as i know about it.

i've come to the conclusion that c++ is far better for a device like the gp2x, even though java, oddly enough, was designed with embedded devices in mind. the differences that make java easier (automatic garbage collection, cross-platform window toolkits etc) end up having to be done manually anyway, and even when you compile directly you're not going to get the same speed. another advantage of java is the large built-in package library and the amount of custom packages out there....but again this tends to hinder rather than help on limited hardware.

 

[Shikaku]

gcj

.... Which won't do much anyway =/

 

[mongolito404]

We will never have Sun's Java on GP2X. They would not port it and nobody else has the source code.
There is already some open-source jvm for ARM but for GUI most of them need the gnuclasspath which implements large part of Swing and AWT using X librairies (GTK or something else). So without an XWindow for GP2X, they are quite useless for gaming. If somebody may want to implements AWT/Swing (ar another Java-GUI libs) on top of the FB, I'm sure people outside the GP2X community would also be happy.

 

[critical]

We will never have Sun's Java on GP2X. They would not port it and nobody else has the source code.
There is already some open-source jvm for ARM but for GUI most of them need the gnuclasspath which implements large part of Swing and AWT using X librairies (GTK or something else). So without an XWindow for GP2X, they are quite useless for gaming. If somebody may want to implements AWT/Swing (ar another Java-GUI libs) on top of the FB, I'm sure people outside the GP2X community would also be happy.

​

There is already a framebuffer AWT (called Odonata):

http://odonata.tangency.co.uk/

It's not finished, but it'll do the job for lots of what you'd need (and it's open source, so you can fix up things for the GP2X).

I don't have time to do it myself at the moment, as I've got other commitments, but I'm keen to get cracking on Java support as soon as I get the chance.

 

[Javacat]

Java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java java Kaffe!!!


It looks as though there is a version of swing which works with a Java virtual machine called SableVM. I'd have a look at what it's like but I hate programming/reading/using/everything java .

 

[Hanz™]

It would be nice if someone could get a copy of Java to work on the GP2X, as I can't be bothered to do anymore C++ right now.

 

[swf]

It would be nice if someone could get a copy of Java to work on the GP2X, as I can't be bothered to do anymore C++ right now.

​

You would probably have an easier time packaging Mono for the GP2X. It already has JIT for ARM linux. IKVM will let you run Java on Mono.

Personally I'm considering using Lua for the high-level stuff.